The Daily Word of Righteousness

A Basic Concept, #26

And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: (Revelation 21:12)

The lesson we learn from the emphasis on the wall and its twelve foundations is that sin and rebellion will remain a possibility throughout eternity. The Glory of God and the peace of His saints will be guarded by an impenetrable wall. No fallen angel, no rebellious human, will be able to enter the city and bring torment and death into the place of God's holiness.

Had the garden of Eden been walled, Satan could not have entered.

Never again will there be an unwalled paradise.

And the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence. (Isaiah 4:5)

The names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb are in the twelve foundations of the wall, and the foundations are wondrously ornamented. The jewels in the foundations of the wall portray the creation of resistance to sin in the Apostles of the Lamb and in those who follow their teaching. The wall against sin is being created in us, being founded on the Apostles of the Lamb.

The sons of God will stand as an eternal wall against sin and rebellion. No individual who practices lawlessness will be able to enter through the gates into the city .

Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. (Revelation 22:14)

All sin is kept outside the city.

For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. (Revelation 22:15)

The present-day interpretation of "grace" has turned the true grace of God into immorality. Divine grace is not an alternative to keeping God's commandments. Divine grace is the Presence of God through Christ given to people so they may be able to keep the commandments of God and enter through the gates into the city.

Satan's supreme deception is the teaching that we are in a dispensation of "grace" such that we can enter the Paradise of God by professing belief in Jesus apart from moral transformation.

No angel or human being ever at any time shall enter the city of God by a grace that prevents God from seeing the actual condition of the individual. Sin shall never enter there. The abominable, the witches, the immoral, the perverted, the violent, the covetous, the liars shall never enter the city of God by grace, by mercy, by love, or by any other means.

God began His Kingdom with Christ. After Christ comes the firstfruits of the elect—those who overcome sin through Christ. Then the rest of the family of God. Finally, the nations of the saved. This program cannot progress until the firstfruits of the elect have overcome sin and have been formed in the image of Christ and brought into union with one another and with God through Christ.

To be continued.